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SpaceX Launches Most Powerful Rocket Ever Built Into Orbit; U.K. Investigating Suspected Terror Plot at Base Used by U.S.; Busy October Campaign Push on Deck for Trump, Vance; Trump Announces Plans for a New Iowa Steel Plant; Trump Open to Iran Sanctions Relief for Concrete Progress on Nuclear Issues. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired September 28, 2026 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[14:00:00]

GARRETT REISMAN, FORMER NASA ASTRONAUT: You know, I could, you know, maybe they had a problem that was getting worse, maybe it had to do with something to do with that engine that failed, maybe the propellant was getting warm and too much was boiling off. I don't want to speculate, although I just did.

(LAUGH)

REISMAN: So -- but we'll find out eventually. SpaceX will let us know what the issue was. They're pretty good about that, so I'm just guessing. With time we'll find out why they decided to come home significantly early. They spent less than half the time in space than they intended to.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": You are an informed speculator though, I will say. Garrett Reisman, thank you so much for being with us as always.

REISMAN: Informed speculator, I'm putting that on my resume, thank you.

KEILAR: Yeah, right on the business card. Thanks, Garrett.

And a new hour of "CNN News Central" starts right now.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": President Trump's set to start a campaign blitz all the way up to Election Day, but will the White House's midterm messaging match what Republican candidates are telling voters?

Plus, five men suspected of plotting an attack on a U.K. airbase that's being used by American long-range bombers are now set to be released on bail. We'll look at the new questions surrounding the investigation, the suspects, and their potential motive.

KEILAR: And a warm welcome for the new residents of Zoo Atlanta. Oh my gosh, look at them. We have our first look at the two giant pandas beginning their mission of diplomacy and utter cuteness.

We are following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to "CNN News Central."

The White House is about to go all-in on President Trump as the GOP fights to maintain control of Congress in the upcoming midterms.

Today, CNN is learning a busy October is in store for the president. He has almost daily campaign stops scheduled, even as some Republicans have tried to distance themselves from Trump and his policies.

SANCHEZ: Now, we are expecting to see the president just minutes from now as he announces plans for a new steel plant in Iowa. All of this amid new backlash over a taxpayer-funded ad where the president promises a final battle against communists, the deep state, and media outlets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: And we will liberate America from these villains, once and for all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: We're joined now by CNN's Alayna Treene at the White House and Jeff Zeleny as well. Also with us, Henrietta Treyz, the Director of Economic Policy at Veda Partners.

Alayna, first to you, what is the latest on the White House's midterm strategy?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Look, our colleague, Kristen Holmes and I dug into a lot of this reporting. We spoke with several advisers of the president, members of his political operation, people on the outside, for example, officials working for some of the Republican congressional committees, and all of them made, honestly, the same point, Boris and Brianna, which is this idea that they are more concerned about the midterm elections now than they had been in recent months, many of them citing the Iran War, the economy, and the president's approval ratings really being something that they worry is dragging down Republicans across the country.

I do want to read for you what one Trump adviser told me because I do think it sums up what these conversations really looked like. They had said, it's obviously going to be effing rough. That is what one of these advisors told me. They added that they believe the best-case scenario for Republicans would be similar to what Democrats saw in 2022 under former President, Joe Biden, when Democrats held onto the Senate but lost the House.

They're essentially assuming that could potentially be the best case for Republicans this time around. But look, despite all of that, the White House is moving forward with their strategy of having the president aggressively campaign, not only in some of these more red states and red districts, but also some of these purple ones as well.

But I'm told that even in these purple states, the president is going to focus more on these conservative areas, and that's because they believe that it's going to be very hard for them to kind of replicate what they did in 2024 when they really went after and targeted more moderate-leaning, independent-leaning conservatives. This time, they believe it's going to be the president's base. That is where all the turnout opportunities are going to lie for him.

And so they're really targeting specifically the more MAGA voters and hoping that that can -- juicing that turnout can help them turn the tide. I will say, though, Boris and Brianna, I also heard from them arguing that, you know, the problem with relying on Trump as being a driver of enthusiasm is that he's also a great driver of enthusiasm for Democrats. And so this is a problem that they're dealing with.

But all to say, as one other adviser put it, the cake is already baked, and so they believe that they just got us press ahead with this and hope they can do enough to make Republicans successful in a couple weeks.

KEILAR: All right, we'll see if that works. Thank you, Alayna.

So, Henrietta, in August, U. S. manufacturing was the highest recorded since July of 2021. I mean, that is something. But what kind of impact is this announcement that we're expecting of a steel plant going to have on the economy?

[14:05:00]

HENRIETTA TREYZ, DIRECTOR OF ECONOMIC POLICY, VEDA PARTNERS: You know, that's a really great question. First, I'd like to know where the plant is actually going to be put. To my knowledge, we don't have an exact location of where the plant is going to be built. I think it's about 1,700 construction jobs to build it. And of course, the location is really so much of this story. To connect it to the elections, I think is exactly correct.

The president is facing material backlash from the entire delegation in Iowa. Starting with the senior Senator, who's actually third in line to the presidency, Senator Chuck Grassley, who is from Iowa, a farmer himself and is actively calling for a drawdown to the war, a ban on diesel exports because farmers are getting a triple whammy, effectively, from tariffs on steel and farming equipment. Steel tariffs have been as high as 50 percent in the last year and a half.

And then you've got the immigration issue that has hurt with all of their agriculture workers, some of the seasonal workers. And then, of course, the war with Iran that has driven fertilizer prices through the roof, diesel prices through the roof, gasoline prices through the roof. So those are all problems not unique to the state of Iowa, but uniquely problematic for the Republican delegation.

One more thing I'd point out, and it's notable to me that the president is not actually going to Iowa for this announcement. And that could be because Ashley Hinson, the Republican on the top of the ticket in the Senate race, chose to stay away when J.D. Vance came into town a few weeks back. So there's that disconnect between, is Trump really good for the ticket? Do we need to remind voters that he's there? Or should he stay in Washington? SANCHEZ: Picking up the thread where you mentioned high diesel prices being something that Republicans are undoubtedly burdened with as we head closer to the midterms, there were discussions among administration officials about potentially having some kind of diesel export ban.

At least one administration official told CNN that there was a possibility that the companies behind producing diesel and exporting it would be approached by the administration to have some kind of self-regulation in place as opposed to a government-led one. What would happen if the U.S. government instilled, placed in effect a diesel export ban?

TREYZ: You rightly point out that this is an issue the president has endorsed. I started hearing about that as far back as March in the early days of the war, and it really has spiraled. Not just Senator Grassley, as I mentioned, but Senator Dan Sullivan in Alaska, Senators in Tennessee, Congressmen in Tennessee, and then the president himself at the U.N. General Assembly just last week came out in support of this idea.

What happens when you put a ban on diesel into place and institute protectionist domestic policy is that the Gulf States, where the diesel is actually being refined down in the Gulf of Mexico, Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Mississippi, they'll see prices decline. But we don't have the ability to transport diesel around to the East Coast, to the West Coast.

You're not going to see relief, and actually prices will get more expensive for them in the long run. After a couple of weeks, you start to shut down refining capacity because these guys don't have anywhere to store the diesel that they can't ship out to the West Coast or to Baltimore or Savannah or New York or New Jersey. So it's a huge boomerang effect.

It's definitely a desperate move. And that is something that, nonetheless, Republicans are considering as the war with Iran drags on.

KEILAR: So what do you think, Henrietta, of Secretary Wright contacting American refiners to gage support for a voluntary limiting of diesel exports? Does that make any sense?

TREYZ: It's really a tough ask, and they're putting the squeeze on refiners in every way that they can. These guys have been working at 98, 100, 102 percent capacity in some cases. They're doing everything that they can to get product to market. We're seeing that these are global commodities, and there's only so much that they can do.

So I think Wright is trying to avoid a diesel ban. But as is playing out, you basically have the farmers in the heartland saying we cannot operate with diesel at these prices. It's going to seep into all of our costs across the board.

It's going to seep into your grocery costs as a result for all the Americans nationwide. And it's really them against the oil and gas guys and the refiners. There's not a lot more squeezing you can do on the refiners, though, unfortunately.

SANCHEZ: Henrietta Treyz, thank you so much for being with us.

Jeff, over to you. One of the striking things about this reporting from our White House team is that President Trump is planning to go not to battleground states but to red states.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: I mean, beginning with Oklahoma and Alabama. And the White House will say, oh, it's to send a message into Texas and to send a message into Florida. It's very possible to go to those states, to other markets. We've seen this time and time again, not just with this president.

[14:10:00]

At this stage of a midterm election, when a president is not as popular as he would like to be, they go places that are safer. And yes, they do need to boost the Trump base. There's no doubt about that.

But if you look at that map, it hardly overlays where the most competitive races are. I think, more interestingly, going into the month of October, he is going into Ohio. And like he'll -- it would be impossible to spend a whole month and not hit some of those battleground races.

But the bigger point here is, what is the president's value when he is out there? Is he going to confront any of these sort of challenges head on and say, I feel your pain. I understand that diesel is high. I understand gas is high. Or is he going to say, the economy is the hottest in the world? And that could simply just frustrate Republicans and make things even worse.

But interestingly, the announcement that's coming up this afternoon about that steel plant in Iowa, even that is causing some controversy because it requires a $500 million investment from the state. The Republican there has been campaigning, the Republican running for governor has been campaigning against a corporate bailout saying the state can't afford it.

So even something like this is not as simple as it sounds from the White House when it actually gets into the nitty-gritty of it.

KEILAR: Yeah. And that will be covered in the state.

ZELENY: Sure.

KEILAR: That makes it really tough. So there is also this bipartisan backlash over a taxpayer-funded ad. And I recognize that I'm asking you about this, considering this is the president who hosted an RNC at the White House. But what are you learning about this?

ZELENY: I mean, look, all of those old rules are out the window. But even this, if it sounds familiar, it is. I mean, this was one of the videos directly from the 2024 campaign. So not even trying to sort of mask it. I mean, the reality is the president has sort of written his own rules, and most of them are not like anything we've ever seen before.

But again, things like this seep in, as well. And people wondering, is he fighting for me? Is he fighting for him? They could have some effect. There's no doubt about it. I mean, he advertised heavily over the weekend in pro football, college football games.

But again, you just have this sense that this probably is not addressing the issues that voters want to hear about. That's the Iran War. That's the affordability issues and other things. So the president, you know, is saying, make this election about me, pretend I'm on the ballot. A lot of voters want to hear answers to questions, not necessarily just seeing this.

But clearly, he believes that this is helpful. And again, we've never seen anything like it. I assume many more Senators, Republican, who are on the Hill right now will be asked about this later on. And John Kennedy will not be the only one saying, this just isn't right.

SANCHEZ: Jeff Zeleny, thanks so much for that.

ZELENY: You bet.

SANCHEZ: Still to come, five terror suspects being released on bail and the urgent questions still surrounding the alleged plot to bomb an airbase used by U.S. bombers.

Plus, Iran offering to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, though President Trump said no, why he rejected the latest proposal and what it means for the possibility of a deal soon.

KEILAR: And later, even the World Cup could not reverse a drop in overseas travel to the U.S., visitors and tourism dollars staying away in a big way. We have that and much more coming up on "CNN News Central."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:17:51]

KEILAR: The five men arrested on suspicion of a plot to attack a U.K. air base used by long-range U.S. bombers are set to be released on bail today. British counterterrorism officials made the surprise announcement a short time ago, saying the investigation is ongoing and that the men will be subject to strict conditions. The group was arrested on suspicion of terrorism on Sunday.

Dozens of houses were evacuated in the area as a precaution, and bomb disposal units were seen combing the scene. You see some pictures here. President Trump called the arrest fantastic, saying the men had been under investigation by both the U.S. and U.K., quote, "for a long time."

We're joined now by Juliette Kayyem. She's a CNN Senior National Security Analyst and a former Assistant Secretary at the Department of Homeland Security. Juliette, what do you think about this? These five men going to be released on bail. What does it tell you? JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: It tells me that this case will probably not hold up as a terrorism case. Under terrorism statutes in Great Britain, they can be held for 14 days without the charges being disclosed and without their names being disclosed. Within 24 hours, however, they are released on bail, which suggests that at least the prosecutors right now do not think that they have a strong terrorism case or that these are the men that everyone -- the kind of men that everyone was worried about before.

And so that is why, I thought last night the British were sort of -- I don't want to say unwinding it, but they were definitely like, we don't quite know what we have right now. Of course, President Trump got ahead of this story, saying these are the guys that have been under surveillance. Perhaps there is a group that's under surveillance. It's unlikely it's this group.

So that's where we are right now. That's why we wait to make any judgments, as we have been over the last couple of hours, because this case did seem less than what it appeared at midnight. This could change again, but the bail suggests that they don't have as strong of a case as they thought.

KEILAR: If it is some other group under surveillance, what does this portend for that situation?

[14:20:00]

KAYYEM: Yeah. So there is a lot of joint investigations going on with -- between the United Kingdom and the United States, in particular because we do use this Air Force Base as a launching pad for major military missions in Iran. Of course, the United Kingdom is under threat. The Iranians have said that we are going to target countries that help the United States.

So there are likely a number of investigations. Either the president was just was talking about another investigation which might now be public or the president was just trying to be part of the story as he sometimes does and says, yes, I knew all about this all along and in fact, this could be a drug arrest. We just don't know right now.

I know the British -- I know the U.K. counterterrorism laws very well. They don't -- they didn't have to do anything for 14 days, nothing. I mean, it puts -- I know people think our system may be harsh. This is a harsh system when it comes to counterterrorism. The fact they got released on bail may mean something illegal was being done but not what we feared.

I'll add that it doesn't -- we haven't heard anything about bombs being detonated either. The pictures are showing that they pulled out some boxes. Generally by now we'd hear that. So this is good news. I know I mean it is. I mean if a terror attack didn't happen, that's good news even though we know the U.K. is under threat.

KEILAR: Yeah. So in July, Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps specifically noted Fairford's use by U.S. bombers, warning the U.K. that any base used for aggression against Iranian territory constitutes a legitimate target for our forces. Now Iran has denied any involvement in the incident, but just sort of broadcasting, you know, potential targets.

I mean how do you see that? Do you see that as sort of broadcasting marching orders, potentially activating lone actors or sympathizers --

KAYYEM: Yeah.

KEILAR: -- in other countries and identifying potential targets? It's a great question.

KAYYEM: I'll tell you that my community, the counterterrorism or the -- you know, the defense community is split on this. Where I stand is, I -- just given how the war is going and the narrative of what Iran has in this war, in the sense that they now have the United States sort of stuck without an exit. They're controlling the Strait of Hormuz.

They are -- our Gulf allies don't feel supported by us. The European public and population are overwhelmingly against this war. It never struck me as strategically smart for the Iranians to launch a sleeper cell. They have them, but to launch it or to attack Western targets or the United States targets.

So the absence of them in the last couple months struck me as part of a strategy by the Iranians to sort of win the war of narrative, right? If they kill a lot of Americans or Europeans, it becomes a very -- civilians, it becomes a very, very different narrative for them.

Their goal is to divide the world from us which they've done in some regards. So I think that the Iranians will probably stick with that strategy. It is a strategy. That does not negate the potential for self-radicalization.

Lots of people are angry about this war. They're still angry about Israel and Gaza. That is still a threat and we may learn that this group that was captured may have ties to any number of those kinds of, you know, radicalizations.

But right now, it looks like the U.K. counterterrorism officials do not feel comfortable keeping them in jail even though they could for 13 more days. That says something about the strength of the evidence.

KEILAR: Yeah, it's a very good point. They did not have to release them on bail. Even if they are under strict conditions and they were emphasizing that, but very important.

KAYYEM: Yeah.

KEILAR: Juliette, thank you so much. Always great to speak with you.

And still to come, we -- will we soon see signs that China is changing course when it comes to Iran? The key tests after President Trump's direct appeal to Xi Jinping.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [14:29:00]

SANCHEZ: A top White House official tells CNN that President Trump is now open to Iran's sanctions relief and releasing frozen funds for, quote, "concrete progress on a nuclear deal." The president earlier told Axios, he expects more talks with Iran this week. That comes after President Trump rejected Iran's latest offer to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, calling the proposal unacceptable.

Let's discuss with Barak Ravid. He spoke with President Trump about the possibility of more talks with Iran. He's, of course, the Global Affairs Correspondent for Axios and a CNN Political and Global Affairs Analyst.

Barak, thanks for being with us. When Trump said that he would have taken the most recent deal that Iran offered a year ago, but not now, what's your understanding of why? What is his reasoning?

BARAK RAVID, CNN POLITICAL & GLOBAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: Well, I think -- I'm not sure, you know, we should take those things literally because, you know, a year ago, I think other things were on the table and other things were discussed.

I think what the president was trying to stress is that he feels that he has the upper hand in those negotiations, especially that, you know, the Iranians --